


You're your own hero, aren't you?

by queenofchildren



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Jealousy, Sparring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-28
Updated: 2016-01-28
Packaged: 2018-05-16 21:34:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5841793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenofchildren/pseuds/queenofchildren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Monroe has a bad day, Harper is oblivious, and Bellamy is not helping.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You're your own hero, aren't you?

**Author's Note:**

> I thought Harper and Monroe were very cute in their short sparring scene in the Season 3 premiere, so I wrote a little ficlet for them.

It’s three months after the Mountain, and Monroe considers it great progress that she’s not angry _all_ the time anymore. Today, however, she’s already in a bad mood when she shows up for sparring, and it doesn’t help at all that Harper is smiling at a shirtless, sweaty Bellamy like some lovesick puppy.

Of course, Monroe can see how he’s kind of nice to look at, objectively speaking, and she would go to hell and back herself for the guy who’s still more of a leader to her than any Chancellor will ever be. As far as crushes go, Bellamy’s a pretty good choice, not that anything could come of it now that he has a girlfriend. But it still irks her when Harper smiles bashfully, eagerly hands him the bag with Lincoln’s uniform jacket and nods along with his every word. So what if it’s a rousing speech, it’s not like they haven’t heard one of Bellamy’s speeches before. And even if Monroe is a little bit moved herself, there’s no reason for the amount of heart-eyes Harper is throwing in Bellamy’s direction. It reeks of hero-worship, and Monroe knows her friend is better than that.

After all, she thinks when Bellamy orders them to team up and Harper automatically turns to her, isn’t Harper a hero herself? Joining up with Bellamy’s gunners to defend the dropship camp, getting captured and tortured after being instrumental in Monty’s plan to contact the Ark from inside Mount Weather – Harper has been through some shit even by earth-standards. If anything, people should be looking at _her_ the way she looks at Bellamy.  

Monroe is so irrationally annoyed by all of this that she doesn’t even notice how much more aggressively she attacks until Harper calls out for a break after only a few minutes to look at her worriedly.

“Is everything alright? You’re not normally this aggressive.”

Everything is decidedly not alright, but she can’t very well admit that now, so she shakes her head and continues without warning, causing Harper to cry out when she barely manages to block her attack.

At this point, people around them are starting to pause in their sparring to watch them, noticing that their training is starting to look an awful lot like a real fight, and there’s nothing these knuckleheads love more than watching a good fight. By now, Harper looks pretty pissed too, and Monroe unwillingly feels a certain fondness at the sight. Her friend is not one to give up, not even when she’s being unfairly attacked for no reason. It’s only when Harper actually manages to land a hit that causes her nose to bleed that Lincoln steps in and drags them apart.

“You two are done for today. Whatever is wrong between you, talk it out before you return.”

But Monroe has no desire to talk anything out, because what would she even say? I’m angry about the way you’re looking at Bellamy? I want you to stop looking at him or anyone else and start looking at… She can’t even bring herself to think it. Monroe may be good at a lot of things – shooting and fighting and keeping her hands steady when handling explosives, for example – but she’s not good at feelings. She’s somber and dutiful and not a great and conversationalist, altogether not someone people like Harper, with her sunny hair and sunnier smile, will ever lose sleep about.

So she just grabs her jacket and stomps out of the hangar where they practice, but she hasn’t made it more than a few steps before someone grabs her by the arm and whirls her around.

“What the hell is your problem?” Harper looks angry, but even her stormy expression is less intimidating than the thought of telling her what she’s been thinking about lately.

“Nothing’s my problem. I just decided to step it up a bit today. Maybe if you weren’t so distracted making eyes at Bellamy, you would have been able to keep up.”

“Bellamy? What are you…?”

But Monroe doesn’t give her a chance to finish the question, just tugs her arm out of Harper’s slackening grip and slips away. She shouldn’t have said it, because of course Harper is going to figure it out now because Harper’s smart, and then things will be awkward and they won’t be friends anymore and life on earth will be even shittier than before.

Because that’s the thing, the reason why the thought of Harper liking someone else hurts so much: She’s the only good thing on a planet that, so far, has been kind of disappointing in a very bloody, very lethal way. Her parents used to dream about it, used to tell her stories of going to the ground and champion for sending volunteers down to test if earth was survivable long before the 100 were sent very involuntarily. And now she’s here and her parents are not, and she wishes she could tell them that all their dreams came true for her, that earth is the paradise they dreamed of. But it’s not a paradise at all, and maybe it’s a merciful thing that they burned up with Hydro before getting here.

By now, Monroe is getting so morose there’s nothing to be done but stop thinking altogether, and she asks Raven for something to do at the hangar instead, something physically exhausting preferably. Soon enough, she has managed to block out all thoughts of Harper and her parents as she’s lugging back and forth heavy boxes of tools and scrap metal at Raven’s command.

But of course, the relative peace doesn’t last long. When Raven finally shoos her out of the hangar, Monroe heads to the fireplace to get something to eat, but she’s barely finished her bowl of venison stew when a familiar voice speaks up behind her.

“So I think I’ve figured out what happened this morning: You were angry at me because you think I like _Bellamy._ ”

The way she emphasizes the name, as if it’s the most ridiculous notion ever, makes Monroe feel a little stupid. But by now, her stubborn pride refuses to let her admit that that’s exactly what happened.

“It’s none of my business who you like.”

There’s silence after that, and since Monroe stonily refuses to turn and look at the other girl, she hopes Harper will get the hint and leave again. Instead, her friend sits down next to her, so close their arms are touching, and Monroe isn’t sure if she wants to pull away or lean into the contact, but either way it’s driving her crazy.

“But what if I wanted it to be your business?”

Monroe doesn’t quite know what to say to that, too scared that she misinterpreted it.

“Bellamy’s great, but you know what? He didn’t stay with me every night after we returned to hold me when I got nightmares. He didn’t make me do physical therapy exercises so my hip would get better instead of just letting me drink away the pain. He didn’t spar with me even when I was still ridiculously weak and a useless partner just so I could build up strength.”

Now Monroe does look up, because those are all things _she_ did, without even thinking about them at the time. She didn’t think they’d meant quite as much to her friend, but apparently they did.

“I’m talking about you, by the way. Just in case that wasn’t clear…” Even Harper sounds a little nervous right now, so Monroe forces herself to say something, no matter how stupid it sounds.

“Oh, yes, that was… yeah that was clear.”

And because it is and she doesn’t know what to say to that but she knows how she feels about it, Monroe turns towards the other girl, leans forward, and kisses her square on the mouth. She may not be great at talking, but never let it be said that she was a coward. Fortune favours the bold, and all that.

From the way Harper smiles against her lips and then pulls her closer to deepen the kiss, it’s clear that she agrees.


End file.
